Former Starwood VP on Marriott Breach: Something Doesn’t Add Up

In an article written for PhocusWire, Israel del Rio, the former Senior Vice President of Technology Solutions at Starwood Hotels & Resorts from 2001 to 2006, detailed some of his thoughts about the recent security breach that’s affected about 5oo million guests, and takes issue with Starwood’s official version of events.

In particular, del Rio called into question the foregone conclusion that it was hackers who breached the system, and suggests the possibility that it was an inside job, owing to the fact that it is “almost impossible to imagine a scenario in which an external hacker is able to gain access to the primary encryption keys.”

del Rio suggests that Marriott should be more transparent in its description of the event in order to head off wild media speculation about the source of the breach, including reports that it was Chinese hackers who compromised the hotel group’s security.